Learning in the wild: Coding for learning and practice on Reddit

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Caroline A. HaythornthwaiteFollow
Priya Kumar, Ryerson UniversityFollow
Anatoliy Gruzd, Ryerson UniversityFollow
Sarah Gilbert, University of British ColumbiaFollow
Marc Esteve del Valle, University of GroningenFollow
Drew Paulin, University of California, BerkeleyFollow

ORCID

Caroline A Haythornthwaite: 0000-0002-7311-3140

Priya Kumar: 0000-0001-6732-7145

Anatoliy Gruzd: 0000-0003-2366-5163

Document Type

Article

Date

2018

Keywords

informal learning, social media, coding, content analysis, Reddit

Language

English

Funder(s)

Social Science and Humanities Research Council

Funding ID

Learning Analytics for the Social Media Age

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada(SSHRC) under Insight Grant scheme.

Disciplines

Communication | Communication Technology and New Media | Library and Information Science | Online and Distance Education | Social Media

Description/Abstract

Learning on and through social media is becoming a cornerstone of lifelong learning, creating places not only for accessing information, but also for finding other self-motivated learners. Such is the case for Reddit, the online news sharing site that is also a forum for asking and answering questions. We studied learning practices found in ‘Ask’ subreddits AskScience, Ask_Politics, AskAcademia, and AskHistorians to develop a coding schema for informal learning. This paper describes the process of evaluating and defining a workable coding schema, one that started with attention to learning processes associated with discourse, exploratory talk, and conversational dialogue, and ended with including norms and practices on Reddit and the support of communities of inquiry. Our ‘learning in the wild’ coding schema contributes a content analysis schema for learning through social media, and an understanding of how knowledge, ideas, and resources are shared in open, online learning forums.

Recommended Citation

Haythornthwaite, C., Kumar, P., Gruzd, A., Gilbert, S., Esteve del Valle, M., & Paulin, D. (2018). Learning in the wild: Coding for learning and practice on Reddit. Authors original manuscript for paper published in Learning, Media and Technology, 43(3), 219–235. DOI: doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1498356.

Source

submission

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.